Promoting strong public schools for Providence\’s East Side and beyond

Sam Zurier’s Notes from Regents Meeting

An email glitch prevented me from getting these up earlier, but here are Sam’s notes from yesterday’s meeting of the Board of Regents:

The Rhode Island Department’s Board of Regents approved State funding for Nathan Bishop in two meetings that took place on Wednesday afternoon.

The Finance Committee held the first meeting. The RIDE staff architect, Joseph DaSilva, discussed changes to the project that came out of the RIDE review process. The cost of the project was reduced by around $9 million due to some design changes and changes in the procurement process. Mr. DaSilva identified savings that were realized in the procurement process and in removing certain “multi-level” features of the building. While the details are not clear, it appears that he is describing changes to the “atrium” effect in the library/media center and the cafeteria. Mr. DaSilva also described greater “efficiencies” that were achieved by increasing the school’s capacity from 600 to 750.

I expressed a concern about this “efficiency”, stating that the current thinking on middle schools is away from larger schools towards smaller ones. I described our own work on the Superintendent’s Committee, and how we had recommended 450 students, but had agreed to 600.

At this point, one Regent, Angus Davis, asked if the State was requiring Providence to fill the school with 750 students, and the staff said no. He mentioned that bigger was not always better, and in fact in Woonsocket may have been a mistake. The Finance Committee then approved the project.

The full Board of Regents had its meeting later Wednesday afternoon. The RIDE architect made basically the same presentation. Angus Davis made a statement emphasizing the importance of the academic program inside the building, noting that Providence’s highest performing schools often were located in the District’s lowest quality buildings. He also encouraged ESPEC to work on addressing the issues of “bumping” and improvements in other parts of the City, such as Olneyville. The Regents approved the project, and now Providence can float the bonds to permit the project to proceed under the current legal regime (which remains in effect only until the end of the month) which permits RIDE approval to complete the process. (After January 1, the entire General Assembly will have to approve school funding projects for Providence.)